Salaries for waiters instead of tips? Why not?

The French Laundry includes the service charge in its$270 menu, but there’s a place on the bill for additional gratuity. The Chronicle 2010

On Monday, Gawker posted a piece about Sushi Yasuda in New York doing away with all tipping. Instead, each item on the menu is priced higher to cover the cost of a tip. At the bottom of the check there’s an explanation that the staff is fully compensated with a salary (which includes health care benefits), and that “gratuities are not accepted.”

Chez Panisse in Berkeley was one of the first restaurants in the United States to include a service charge on the bill, and Per Se in New York and the French Laundry in Yountville incorporate the service charge in the price of the fixed-price menu. However, there’s still space at the bottom of the bill where diners can leave an addition tip, and I’m sure most do. At Sushi Yasuda, tips simply aren’t accepted.

I applaud that move because giving servers a salary elevates the profession. The counter argument is that waiters are motivated by tips, and once you remove the extra cash the incentive is gone. However, if the waiter is well paid I don’t think that would be an issue, and if that is a problem, the waiter probably isn’t right for the job. It’s the management’s responsibility to find people who have a passion for the profession and aren’t just motivated by a 20 percent tip.

True, if service is bad, diners will not have the option of withholding the tip, but they can also complain and don’t have to return. I’ve always been perplexed about the idea of tipping and how and why that got started. It’s always felt a little incongruous to have an expensive meal and then to fork over more at the end.

I’m sure there are reasons and issues I’m not aware of, and I’d love to hear others’ opinions. I do know some restaurants pay a percentage of gross sales to landlords, so by adding in the tip they would be penalized with an corresponding rent increase.

In the end, however, doing away with tips makes the experience of dining more transparent (a word that seems to be used a lot these days) and civilized.